How in the Tech

Label that Thumbdrive with your Contact Information

By Adam Myers ⋅ November 5, 2008 ⋅ Tags: File Management

I probably own over a dozen USB memory sticks; it’s just such a handy and useful piece of technology that finally allowed us to rid ourselves of the floppy drive. For just a few dollars I can have a 1GB thumbdrive that is more than adequate to transfer files between computers. As I don’t keep my lone copy of anything important I have little qualms in lending them out as needed – it happens quite frequently at the office. While the thumbdrives are cheap, they aren’t quite disposable so it annoys me to no end when the sticks don’t find their way back to me. I’m just as much to blame as the lendee as I could do a better due diligence and keep track of who has what and when. It is also not uncommon for me to just leave them laying around in another person’s office.

Lately though, I’ve taken to labeling the thumbdrive so that when a user plugs it into the computer, my contact information shows up in My Computer. If you have the same problems as me, here’s how I accomplished this; it’s actually pretty simple.

1. Create a new text document using Notepad and title it autorun.inf. The .inf extension is very important, you may have to change the Save as type to All Files (*.*).



2. With the autorun.inf file opened in Notepad, edit the content to read like the picture below.
   

   Be sure to supply the appropriate contact information!

3. Lastly, I like to edit the Properties on the autorun.inf file so that it is Read-only and Hidden. Just right-click on the file and chose Properties. Then place the file in the root of each of your thumbdrives.

Now the next time the thumbdrive is mounted your name and phone number will show up as the drive label in Windows Explorer!